EASTER 2012

My Mom lives in Ferndale and Tyler’s Mom lives in North Marysville.  Knowing it was the first holiday since my Grandma had passed away I had already planned on spending Easter with my Mom.  In early March Tyler’s Mom sent us an invite to join them for Easter.  I told her I planned on spending the holiday with my Mom, Laura understood & extended the Easter dinner invite to my Mom as well.

My Mom took the Saturday morning Amtrak train from Bellingham into Seattle where we picked her up.  We then stopped for lunch on our way to the Woodland Park Zoo.  Because our children enjoyed the zoo so much in Utah & we enjoy the Woodland Park Zoo, Tyler bought us a family membership that is good for an entire year. The zoo had an Easter egg hunt going on which was a perfect way to introduce the idea of an egg hunt to the kids.

After the egg hunt we walked around the zoo and saw all the animals. To no surprise the kids enjoyed the elephants, giraffes, hippo, and monkeys the most. The monkeys were putting on a show outside in the sunshine, making loud noises & playfully swinging in the trees. The birds and the elephants were also having Zoologist lead presentations.  To complete our trip we finished off with a ride on the Carousel. 

 Above: Josie & grandma Mel.

Bellow: Issac & Grandma share a moment of Joy.

When we got back to our house I made Pork Chops for dinner while my Mom gave the kids their Easter gifts from her.  Issac got a Leap Frog numbers tracer & Josie a Purple Leaptop.  My Mom also delivered the kid’s gifts from Auntie Nicole’s recent trip to Disneyland.  They got the cutest fabric eggs that had a stuffed Mickey chick & Minnie chick inside them. 



Easter morning I was grateful that my kids are too young to be so excited that they wake up before the sun comes up because they both slept pass 8;30 am.  Josie was first up & it didn’t take her long to notice the colorful eggs the Easter Bunny had left behind while she was sleeping.  Once Issac woke up he quickly joined in on the holiday fun.   

With both of our children being under 3 we focused on filling their baskets with non-candy items.  Each basket had some bath toys, bubbles, a shovel, a hoe, a pair of sandals, a ball, some bathtub body paints, 2 books, a new outfit in the bottom (in lue of grass) and a DVD.  We filled three dozen plastic eggs with teddy grams before we hid them around our house.  The kids loved everything in their baskets.  Josie was most excited about her new bath toys.  Issac was squealing with excitement over his new Lightning McQueen sandals & Mater books.



As the kids played with their new toys and watched one of their new movies I made breakfast.  After we finished our lemon blueberry pancakes & sausage we all got showered & dressed to make the drive north to Tyler’s Mom’s house in north Marysville. 

Once we arrived at Laura and Mark’s house it didn’t take the kids long to locate their Easter baskets.  After diving into their baskets we headed out front for another Easter egg hunt.  In typical Sipress fashion, both kids got a little boo-boo. Issac fell during the egg hunt & hit his head & Josie walked straight into the barbecue on the back deck when she was blinded by the sunshine. 

For dinner Laura made a delicious ham with a pineapple glaze, mashed potatoes, salad and rolls.  For dessert I made a sunflower peeps cake. It was a recipe I found on Pinterest.  It was simply 2 round 9 inch yellow cakes covered in chocolate frosting.  Then on top you place 20 peeps facing inward around the outside, then place chocolate chips in the center.  I will say, the recipe said to place each chocolate chip facing upward, but I was lazy and simply sprinkled them on top the cake. 



After dessert we made sure we captured a few family pictures.  The kids were done for the day & tired but we got a couple good pictures.  I know Issac looks mad but remember he’s almost 3 so he is experimenting with his facial expressions; in these pictures is his “show my teeth smile”. I hope everyone had a sunshine filled easter like us. 

 Above: Tyler & the kids with his Mom, Laura.

Bellow: My Mom with us & the kids.